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3. “The Car Plays: San Diego,” La Jolla Playhouse:
This collection of dome-light dramas, staged in 10-minute bursts inside actual cars, violated just about every rule of theater but one: Make it great. Watching the stories unfold from just inches away felt almost unbearably intimate at times, yet it was maybe the most exhilarating stage experience of the year.
(In photo: Sara Wagner with playgoers in “Dead Battery.”)
/ J. Katarzyna Woronowicz